Daring step
Throw everything down and flee to the country? An experience report
© Lolostock / Shutterstock
The question: metropolis or country life? "My nature freak gene came to the fore." Nina Neelsen, 51, believes that in life you only regret the things you haven't done.
Judka Strittmatter
The decision
After a long international career, during which I lived in ten different countries, I settled down this year and bought a rest yard in Wendland, which I am renovating together with many craftsmen. Sounds weird? Yes, this step was by no means easy. It just got clearer over time. And when the suffering was great enough, everything happened very quickly. Plowing, traveling, solving problems for others – I didn't want to anymore. I was in my own crisis that I had to resolve for myself.
The way there
For 24 years I have advised large corporations, including Coca-Cola Germany. When my daughter was born 13 years ago, and I was a single parent when she was born, because love broke in the fifth week of pregnancy, it became more and more difficult. A 24/7 presence in the executive suite is difficult to reconcile with parenthood. My 48th birthday was a kind of turning point. You have worked so well for so many years now, I thought, you kept all the balls in the air, but ten more years like this, and you are old and worn out, your daughter out of the house and you have nothing that corresponds to the real you .
That's why I wanted to put my life back on a track where I can live out my passions. Namely that of being a nature freak! I had long set aside this inclination of mine in favor of a cosmopolitan lifestyle, but now it has come to the fore. In terms of my job, I switched to training in horse-assisted nature education and Reiki. And I realized more and more: What I actually want is not the big city, but rather go out with pajamas and a ski hat and inspect my tomatoes.
Nevertheless, when I signed the sales contract, I still thought: You are crazy! The yard is too big for a one-woman show, it will all be way too expensive. I still think that often today when I stand here, see piles of rubble everywhere and get 26 new windows, all of which don't fit. To be honest, one disaster after another happens, just like it is in construction. And even I, crisis-tested and solid, have already stood here and cried. But then I pull myself together again and think: stay calm, breathe, carry on! Far worse than sinking into chaos is not making any decisions out of fear. I think you only regret the things in life that you haven't done. Before going to Wendland, I went to Bali with my daughter for a year and had her attend the renowned Green School there, which, according to self-marketing, trains the green managers of tomorrow. In Bali, however, my awareness was further sharpened, and the beginning of Corona finally consolidated my conviction that we all live alienated and that globalization and a heated consumer society do not make us happy.
How is it now?
When you start something that feels good to you, new things happen. I recently got a job offer in an international company, a start-up that wants to bring a technological innovation in "vertical farming" to the market. Driven by Covid, one is willing to hire someone who does not live in the big city, who can work virtually and remotely. That fits: Now I can do mine in nature without having to give up my previous profession.
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